


Missing

by lawless



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Angst, Community: 100_roadtrips, Double Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-27
Updated: 2010-08-27
Packaged: 2017-10-12 14:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lawless/pseuds/lawless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What drives Sanzo? Hint: It's not Jeep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missing

**Author's Note:**

> Double drabble written for the Saiyiuki drabble community 100_roadtrips' challenge #217, the one that got away. Koumyou's dialogue, some of which is paraphrased, is from chapter 29, volume 5 of the TokyoPop edition of Saiyuki, pp. 164-165.
> 
> Contains canon character death. Not beta reviewed; all mistakes are mine.

He'd answered his master's summons with his heart in his throat. Sanzo priesthood was a burden he would rather refuse, but if that was what his master wanted of him, so be it.

He knelt and said he wasn't worthy of the title. But Koumyou was undeterred, unconventional to his last breath.

"A Sanzo needs a strong body, but a strong spirit is more important still.

"It's your turn to be strong, Priest Genjyo Sanzo."

With those fateful words hanging in the air, his master only had time to pass him a rolled-up sutra, and he only had time to stash it inside his robe, before a youkai burst into the room and tore Koumyou's life away while also relieving him of the sutra he bore.

Afterward, Kouryuu remained huddled and miserable even after his paralysis wore off, until Shuuei found him. He rebuffed all attempts at comfort.

He couldn't revive his master, but he could retrieve his master's missing sutra. That was his mission now, one he would achieve at any cost.

His entire existence since then -- including the journey west and his stint at Keiun -- amounts to nothing more than chasing the one that got away.


End file.
